Author Archive: Mark Tapscott

WHAT HAPPENED? We live in a fast-changing world, right. Still, how to account for this sequence of headlines in Politco Pro a friend on Capitol Hill pointed out this morning:

Headline from 11/27/13 edition of Politico Pro proclaims: State successes show health law can work.

Headline from 5/11/14 edition of Politico Pro notes: $474m for 4 failed Obamacare exchanges.

IF KEVIN DURANT’S MVP SPEECH MADE YOU CRY, then stop what you are doing and go to The Federalist to read Rachel Lu’s explication of why what he said is profoundly important to the Right. Trust me, this is one of the most important articles the Right media will publish in 2014.

BTW, if you haven’t bookmarked The Federalist, you should. Some great writing and thoughtful analysis there every day. Oh, and they also published something I wrote a few weeks ago: “Can the Right displace the established media? It already has.”

HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY TO SEE ERIC HOLDER SPROUT WINGS AND FLY? Getting President Obama’s Attorney General to do that is the compulsory predicate to jail time for Lois Lerner.

WHAT ELSE DO THE KOCH BROTHER CAUSE? ASHE SCHOW KNOWS! Here’s 10 dandy GIF-illustrated things you probably didn’t know are caused by the Koch Brothers. If you drive, you will especially appreciate #6. And don’t forget to add your two-cents worth on Twitter at #kochscausedit.

NOW HARRY REID CLAIMS THE KOCH BROTHERS ARE THE “MAIN CAUSE” OF CLIMATE CHANGE! So, I have set out on a digital journey to determine if there are any limits to what the Koch Brothers can do, at least in Reid’s world. Here’s what I’ve found so far: Bad Hair Days, Potholes and Your Cat’s Hairballs. Feel free to join me in this journey and share your discoveries on Twitter at #kochscausedit. Didn’t somebody once say you know you are finished in politics when they are laughing at you instead of with you?

Earlier this week, Washington Free Beacon’s Lachlan Markay busted the wall of secrecy surrounding the Democracy Alliance’s Chicago confab. Democracy Alliance is the high-dollar assembly of Democrat fatcats that provides a dark-money pass-through for liberal activist groups like Media Matters for America and the Center for American Progress.

Today, according to the Washington Examiner’s Sean Higgins, it turns out that two of Democracy Alliance’s members are leaders of a powerful union that represents thousands of newspaper reporters and other news industry workers at major media outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NBC and ABC. But that wouldn’t explain why Democracy Alliance almost never suffers negative coverage in the mainstream media. Would it?

DEMS’ BENGHAZI STRATEGY: DENY, DELAY, DISRUPT, DISCREDIT: With House Republicans convening a select committee to investigate the Benghazi scandal, Democrats can be expected to be totally cooperative, completely forthcoming and unusually public spirited … and we have this fabulous bridge in Brooklyn at special price just for you! Morning Examiner lays it out in detail. The mainstream media’s slashing  profiles of Rep. Trey Gowdy are likely being researched and written as this is posted.

WHERE DOES DEEPA KUMAR, THE RUTGERS PROFESSOR who led those First Amendment-crushing protests against Condoleeza Rice, go to celebrate her victory? Why, the Kremlin’s favorite TV outlet in the U.S., Russia Today, of course. Kumar teaches journalism and “media studies” (whatever that is) at Rutgers and is the author of “Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire.” Can you guess which country is the villain in Kumar’s rendering? That’s just one of the Kumar gems unearthed by my Washington Examiner colleague, Chuck Hoskinson, who humbly refers to himself as a “student of the Middle East.” Don’t believe him, he’s an expert.

EMAIL AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO? Now it’s John Holdren, Obama’s White House science adviser, who’s been found using a private email account to conduct official government business. Extra helping of irony here is that back in 2010 Holdren issued memo to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy employees warning them NOT to use private email accounts to do official government business. Competitive Enterprise Institute asks federal judge to order compliance.

YOU PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF SMITH ELECTRIC. But the U.S. spawn of a failed British operation got $32 million under President Obama’s green energy program to build 510 electric vehicles, including some electric truck prototypes for the Army. I’m betting you can guess what comes next in this story? It’s another Washington Examiner Watchdog exclusive. Speaking of which, have you bookmarked the Watchdogs? Nothing else like them in the Right mediasphere.

A timely reminder from The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol about how and why Ronald Reagan was one of America’s greatest presidents and the most successful conservative political figure of the 20th Century. Hint: It wasn’t because he told a good yarn and it wasn’t because he and Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill got together at night and shared a few bipartisan laughs.

Is Jay Carney a disciple of the Baghdad Bob School of Public Relations?

WHY OBAMACARE IS OBAMA’S IRAQ WAR: Shikka Dalmia of The Washington Examiner says it’s time for Americans to ready an exit strategy from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Why? Because “the Iraq War cost $1 trillion and produced a quagmire abroad. Obamacare will cost $1 trillion and will create a quagmire at home.”

ENERGY STATES TO FEEL UNCLE SUGAR’S SEQUESTRATION BLUES: Watchdog.org’s Rob Nikolewski reports that 35 states, including New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming, have been told to expect a 5 percent cut in their federal mineral payments, thanks to sequestration. It’s real money, too, as seen in the $53 million hit for Wyoming and $26 million for New Mexico.

HAS DARRELL ISSA FOUND OBAMACARE’S SOLYNDRA? Maybe, maybe not. What is certain is that reporting by The Washington Examiner’s Richard Pollock on the Obamacare co-ops has prompted an expanded investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS GIVE AWAY TAX DOLLARS FROM BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: Another $112 million handed out by HHS to fund new Obamacare co-op in Iowa and Nebraska headed by a politically connected entrepreneur with a spotty record of successful startups. Previously reported: New York/New Jersey/Oregon and Ohio. From the most transparent administration ever.

IS OBAMA THE (IMPERIAL) PRESIDENT NIXON ALWAYS WANTED TO BE? It’s an immensely important question, but the fact that Jonathan Turley is raising it in USA Today is also rather significant. If this becomes an MSM meme …

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STEPHEN LATHROP IS A VICTIM OF BIG GOVERNMENT: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WS, says Lathrop’s case answers the question “what difference does it make?”

UPDATE (From Ed): Video added; don’t miss this one.

IT’S NOT NICE TO FOOL …Well, Rep. Frank Wolf for starters: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a House Appropriations Committee panel last week that he counts 192 Chinese nationals working in jobs that provide them with physical access to space agency resources and facilities. The Washington Examiner’s Richard Pollock reports on the 118 Bolden didn’t mention.

TIME TO ADD BUREAUCRACY TO SAUSAGES AND LAWS AMONG THINGS YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE BEING MADE: Thanks to The Washington Examiner’s Watchdog special reporting team, which aimed a burst of sunlight at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Out popped a former soap opera starlet and beauty queen on the public payroll, friends helping friends get jobs, employees who rarely do any work, hiring senior executives without even pro forma background checks, and a spend-it-all-now-or-lose-it culture. And that’s just for starters! Go here, here and here.

SPEAKING OF PUBLIC WORRIES ABOUT CORRUPTION IN WASHINGTON: The Washington Examiner’s Mark Flatten has found at least $2.1 million in spending on employee conferences by the Inspector-General at the Agriculture Department. Here’s the twist: The Ag IG neglected to tell Congress about the conferences when asked and the events weren’t included in an online spending database the sprawling department is required to maintain. The IG’s job is to expose waste, fraud and corruption in USDA spending. So this is what the watchers do when they think nobody in Washington is watching?

PASS THE CATSUP, PLEASE: I don’t claim to know why the 2012 election came out as it did, but a few tentative observations are very much on my mind as I munch on a plateful of crow.

NATE SILVER ALSO GAVE SHARRON ANGLE A 75 PERCENT CHANCE OF WINNING IN 2010: The Washington Examiner’s Joel Gerhke offers a telling reminder for all those folks who think the New York Times blogger is the last word on election numbers.

ROMNEY WINS 53-47 ON TUESDAY. NO, OBAMA WINS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE, 277-261. The Romney win is my prediction, while the Obama win is from my highly esteemed colleague at The Washington Examiner, Philip Klein.

WHAT WILL YOU DO IF THE ‘WRONG GUY’ WINS TUESDAY? A key to understanding James Madison’s genius was grasping how the Constitution he mainly authored forces competing interests to compromise, usually with the result that the public interest is at least protected, if not advanced, and political stability follows. Such a result had no precedent among history’s democracies. Here are some thoughts on this question to ponder over the weekend. Perhaps somebody might want to address the question of whether compromise becomes impossible as Big Government continually raises the stakes of losing?